Villagers of Ioannina City (VIC) was formed in 2007 by a group of friends who grew up in the city of Ioannina on the western shore of Lake Pamvotis in the mountains of Epirus, Greece, and had been playing music together since they were very young. The band claim to gather their strengths from Greek nature and cosmic spirits, and play a unique brand of heavy post, stoner and psychedelic rock which utilises various folk instruments such as bagpipe, clarinet and kaval (a type of flute), their music being liberally infused with the style of Greek folk music typical of the Epirus region of the country. The music from that area of Greece is characterized by polyphony and specific rhythms, and this brand of traditional folk music is combined with modern psychedelic styles to create a sound where the clarinet is often one of the most dominant instruments. Villagers of Ioannina City have played at several major rock festivals and European cities (including Berlin, Amsterdam, Barcelona & London) and performed sold-out shows at some of the biggest live venues in Greece. In the early days the band consisted of Akis Zois on bass, Konstantis Pistiolis on clarinet, kaval & backing vocals, Aris Giannopoulos on drums, Alex Karametis on guitar & vocals and Achilleas Radis on keyboards - with Giannis Haldoupis contributing additional clarinet and backing vocals on selected songs. Later releases did not feature Giannis Haldoupis on clarinet, but added Konstantinos Lazos on bagpipes and wind instruments and Kostas Zois on additional guitar.
When the band was first formed they were essentially a heavy rock band utilising the standard guitar bass and drums instrumentation. They subsequently began experimenting with rhythms and melodies from Greek traditional music, and the music of the Epirus region in particular, and soon felt the need to diversify the instrumentation that they were using. Despite this, the band is always careful not to overfill their studio albums with lots of extra instruments to the extent that the music cannot be faithfully reproduced live, the intention being that the sound of a live show will always be very close to that which was originally recorded in the studio. Their influences are stated as King Buffalo, All Them Witches, Elephant Tree and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard. The band released their debut album, 'Riza' in 2014, and followed it up with 'Age of Aquarius' in 2019. Their first live album 'Through Space & Time', recorded at a concert they gave in Athens in 2020, was released digitally on May 21, 2021, and as a CD and Vinyl LP via Napalm Records on March 3, 2023. The performance was largely based around the band's most recent studio album, 'Age of Aquarius' (2019), the tracks from which the band plays in sequence, though some additional songs from their debut album are spliced in at various points during the concert. From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=12860
